Savings and elderly parents

dunstonh

Ian, you are right. However, so is scottp. I remember my time in a bank and even on simple things like account upgrades (and I was doing it just after banks were allowed to compete with building society accounts and the banks were trying to upgrade the old deposit account to their first ever proper savings account) you would have people that would still stay on the old account as it was a comfort factor or they thought there was a catch somewhere and you couldn't persuade them.

Ian_W

You're right of course, dh. In that respect I was probably a little harsh on bank advisors but not the banks themselves.

Some elderly people take great comfort from having a passbook account as they have all their transactions in their possession and the perceived comfort of easy access - though whether a traipse into town and a wait in line is actually as instant or convenient as a no fees cash machine is a moot point. And often they don't like change as it's a bit scary.

Even so, I can't see a reason why the banks [in this case Halifax - but I'm sure there are others] need to penalise loyal and long standing customers to the tune they do simply because they don't want to change from the comfort of a passbook. The OPs parents would receive about £105pa whereas a mediocre account paying only 5% would receive nearly £450 more! I can't believe it costs Halifax that much more to operate the Liquid Gold account as my bet would be that those still in it would be mainly like the OPs parents. Elderly, probably a high % of not overly large life savings, only used as a pretty much last resort - I may be wrong, but that's my guess.

I presumed it was a legacy product but it's still available and the good news is that from 1/6 that the rate's now a whopping 1.11% AER gross!! Shame really as in it's time it was a bit of an icon with the less than ordinary name, great marketing and the fact that it was a market leader rates-wise.

scottp_2

What you have got to remember is that when an account is discontinued, the bank/building society has got to somehow give the incentive for people to move from that particular account, as while ever someone has that account, others are required to manage things such as interest rates, and they also have to be included in various literature, such as details on charges. This all costs money that the bank/building society money it does not want to spend. What is the point in running accounts where they want to get rid of them?
Therefore the bank/BS has to keep making the account less and less attractive to its existing users. A prime example for me at RBS would be the Gold Deposit Account, which used to be paired up with the Gold Cheque Account with a daily two way sweep, meaning the customer always (subject to having money in the linked deposit account) had a set balance in the current, reducing the risk of going overdrawn. Slowly the accounts became obsolete and as such, the interest rate on the Gold Deposit is slowly being reduced. Customers can easily switch to our Instant Access Account, we can just upgrade it, but most people will refuse, saying they are perfectly happy. It’s impossible to convince them that they can earn DOUBLE the interest just by saying 'yes, upgrade it'. We do this as a service, we get no sales bonus or thanks from above for doing it, and we just don’t like seeing people not taking advantage of things.
There are two types of elderly, those are financially astute and are willing to take any advice you give them and are up for making any money. And those who are stuck in their own ways and do not want to listen to anything you say.
It will never change so don’t get too worked up about it, it seems at the moment everyone blames the banks and their staff for things, when the blame is usually on ignorance.

Thanks a lot!

regularsaver1

The liquid gold is sometimes used by people to receive their pension, for example.

It is an instant access account - meaning little interest. And of course, passbook relying on the branch opening hours.

The next account up with a book is a saver reward, based on 3 withdrawals per year - any more and it will change to a liquid gold anyway.

There are other accounts, but some like to see it in there.

The gold account range, came from the days of the Leeds - the gold range does not really receive rate increases and is not great.

margaretclare

Hi

I thought that the Halifax Liquid Gold account no longer existed and that anyone with this type of account was given shares when Halifax de-mutualised sometime in the late 1990s?

I know I had a Liquid Gold account at one time, early 1990s, closed it to move to a more competitive account, and subsequently kicked myself because if I'd held on to it I could have had some of the Halifax shares.

I must point out that some of us so-called 'elderly people' are not as naive and 'unwary' as all that - some of us have learned, often from bitter experience, and some of us, surprisingly enough, are as savvy as people half our age, sometimes a lot more so.

Me, I don't leave ANYTHING in a place where it's not doing what I expect it to do. DH and I regularly check house insurances etc to make sure we're not paying over the odds - ditch-and-switch as Martin suggests - conversely, I'm well aware of interest rates and where to get the best deals. I even check the funds in my equity ISA and I switch those if I think they're not doing as well as I'd like.

And no, I don't 'derive comfort from having a passbook' - why on earth would I? I can see it all on line and I check it most days.

Margaret

missile

May I suggest you steer her toward NS&I products. Their cash ISA and 3/5 year bonds offer quite attractive rates IMHO. Most older people feel very secure with the knowledge that these products are backed by UK government.

However if your parents are anything like my 84 year old mother, she will listen politely then do whatever she wants.

margaretclare

amcluesent wrote: »

A tricky state of affairs, but as elderly parents cognitive faculties decline, children do have a responsibility to step in, inverting the parent/child relationship. I wouldn't trust any bonus/target driven salesman not to rip old folks off. At the end of the day, you need to be ready to assume responsibilities: http://www.guardianship.gov.uk/theservice/enduringpower.htm

I couldn't disagree more. I would be mortified if any of 'the children' felt they had a 'responsibility to step in'. This would be DH's son or daughter, or my daughter, or my younger half-brother....as I said, I'd be absolutely mortified.

There really is not much need for any 'tinkering' or 'twitching' of our affaIrs, in fact they are set up so that they can run as they are for a considerable period of time without much loss. It is NOT automatically the case that one's cognitive faculties decline, at least I hope not - I've got the second of 2 GCSE Maths exams tomorrow morning! Following on from that I intend to make a good attempt to learn Anglo-Saxon....

We are seeing our solicitor on Wednesday about our EPM. We had thought of doing this between ourselves but we now accept that another attorney for each of us would be desirable, however we remain convinced that this should NOT be any close family member.

Margaret

EdInvestor

regularsaver1 wrote: »

The liquid gold is sometimes used by people to receive their pension, for example.

If that's the case, you can see why people wouldn't want to make a change, especially if the account is receiving money which will immediately be spent.

Never disturb arrangments involving Government departments that actually work if you can avoid it, it's asking for trouble.

regularsaver1

True Ed , it is a good account to receive pensions in

But it more about when some people leaves thousands in it